Generation Hex: Dance with the Devil
by Crime Scene Fairy
Summary: One-shot, song-fic. Aftermath of Chris-Crossed. Chris is left with his thoughts and memories after the death of Bianca and his trip to the future. As he struggles to pull himself together, a revelation may be all he needs to keep going. Bianca/Chris.


**Author's Note:** Hey, look. I redid this one to take out the lyrics and make it look better and fit in with my new series. I don't own Charmed, please review, thanks!

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**Generation Hex**

_Dance with the Devil_

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Everything that they had done had been in vain.

After everything that they had done in order to save their future, it had been in vain. Bianca was dead, killed with no mercy whatsoever. Chris had loved Bianca more than anything back where he had lived, and Chris's own older brother had killed him.

Chris Perry (really Chris Halliwell, but he'd be damned before he let anyone know that) felt numb with shock, now that he was in a time where his life was not in danger just because he was a witch - or because his brother was the Source of All Evil, who had killed so many people. Leaning against the door of the back room of P3, he shook his head as he slid to the ground. He felt numb. He couldn't feel anything right now. It had finally sunk in on him.

Bianca was dead.

Wyatt had killed her, right in front of Chris. She had died saving his life.

How many people had Wyatt killed since he had turned, on his eighteenth birthday so many years ago? Chris didn't even have to think about the answer of that question. Too many had died. Bianca was just another number to add to Wyatt Matthew Halliwell's body count.

She was more than just a number, in Chris's eyes. She was an angel, the reason why Chris was alive now. She was the one who had given up everything to save him. Bianca had forsaken her family, her coven, her friends, everything in order to help save him and find a way to save the future.

Bianca wasn't the only person who Chris loved. The family members that were still living were very much loved. HJ, Andie, Veronica, Vanessa… Chris loved his four younger cousins.

The other three remaining Halliwell cousins were dead.

Melinda (a beautiful vivacious young girl who had always loved cooking just like her mother) had been killed only about six months before Chris had left for the past. She was his angel, too. An angel that had been with him through it all - through their mother's death, their brother's turning… everything.

And she was the third of the cousins to fall.

Victoria had gone just before Melinda, in the same exact battle. That battle had ruined everything. Victoria hadn't supposed to have died. Melinda hadn't been meant to die either. Nobody wanted that, least of all Wyatt. He wanted another Halliwell fighting with him. Their deaths were 'accidents', as Wyatt had called them. He had been furious at their deaths, vanquishing every demon that took place in that battle.

If Sammie hadn't died before them, that would have given Chris hope that his brother could be saved.

But, no. Sammie had died before them all, only about two years before Chris had left. While trying to save Aaron, the young man that she had fallen in loved with (ironically Bianca's maternal cousin), she had been captured by Wyatt. She and Aaron had been tortured. Aaron had succumbed to his injuries in a few hours; even members of the Phoenix had their limits.

Sammie had died while he was torturing her. Wyatt had gotten angry, lost his temper, and had gone too far. Sammie had died within hours of Aaron.

Andie had felt Sammie's death through their twin bond. She had never been the same again. She had pulled a Grams; she had turned into a suicidal demon hunter who didn't care if she lived or die. HJ, barely two years older than his twin sisters, struggled trying to keep Andie safe while trying to help run the Resistance.

And yet, no matter what they had tried, more and more people had died because of Wyatt. That was one of the things Chris was hoping to stop - all of their deaths. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone.

Everyone.

Without meaning too, Chris closed his eyes, as tight as he could, as tears threatened to go down his face.

Memories started to flash through his mind… he usually stopped this from happening. He had flashbacks like this a lot, when he was around the sisters. When one of the sisters did something like their future children… and then Chris had a flashback. It happened around Piper a lot more than Paige or Phoebe, though.

Chris was pretty thankful that neither of his aunts had met their future husbands yet. Then he knew that he would be having a tough time keeping this secret. Uncle Henry would have gotten it out of him within a couple of minutes. Uncle Coop would have kept talking him into telling him.

Chris's secret would have been discovered within instants.

Either way, the secret was getting harder and harder to keep. Chris was losing time, and fast. His birthday was coming up in about a year. He had until then to save Wyatt.

And then, a memory came up, and Chris let himself be lost in it.

_"Chrissy! Chrissy! CHRISSY!"_

_An eight-year-old Chris Halliwell blinked his eyes as he heard a voice call his name. He recognized it immediately - Melinda. And she sounded scared._

_Without thinking, without doing anything else, Chris orbed. He knew that his sister was in trouble. He could feel it in his heart, his bones… in the sibling bond that existed between him, Melinda, and Wyatt._

_Chris landed in his sister's room, which was decorated in purple. Melinda hated pink. Veronica, their cousin, loved it, but, then again, she was also part Cupid, while Melinda had been able to properly blow things up since she was two._

_Chris, however, froze in fear as he saw a demon standing over his terrified, brunette sister, who was starting to cry. Without thinking, Chris threw his hand to the side, hoping that this would work. His telekinesis didn't always work. But it had to work now - Melinda was in danger._

_The demon was thrown across the room, hurling into the wall and causing several pictures to fall down. Chris raced over to Melinda, grabbing her arm and orbing her out the instant that they made physical contact. Chris had one place in mind - Wyatt's room._

_The brother and sister orbed in, causing a drowsy Wyatt to jump as they landed next to his bed. He was clearly just getting up. However, as they immediately crowded around him, Wyatt knew something was wrong. He was confirmed to be right as the demon shimmered in, snarling._

_Instinct took over for the ten-year-old witch. Grabbing each of his siblings with a hand, a blue force-field came over Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda. Melinda was still crying, and Wyatt grit his teeth, trying to keep the force-field standing as the demon started to assault it._

_Chris, however, had another plan. "MOM!" he screamed in fear. "HELP!"_

_At that moment, the door burst open, and Piper Halliwell raced in, her eyes wide and fearful. The moment she saw the demon, however, her eyes turned into slits. Flicking her hands as hard as she could at the demon, she watched in grim satisfaction as he exploded into a million particles._

_Melinda continued to sob as Wyatt brought the force-field down. Without a second though, Piper raced over towards the three children, sitting on the bed and bring all three of them into a tight hug. She hushed softly as she kissed the top of her daughter's head._

_"It's alright," she whispered softly, kissing the top of Melinda's head again. "It's alright - you're safe now. Don't worry, you're safe…"_

_"Mommy, he almost got me," she sobbed into her mother's chest, the noise muffled slightly. "But Chris saved me." A pause, and after a thought. "So did Wyatt."_

_Piper looked at both of her sons, and then gave them both a nod of approval. Pulling her two sons into the hug, the four Halliwell witches just hugged for several seconds, the only sound being Melinda's starting to quiet down sobs._

_A moment later, Piper said something._

_"I promise you guys, I'll always keep you safe. I promise…"_

In the end, she had kept that promise. They had attacked at Chris' fourteenth birthday party. Luckily, however it was just family. They hadn't been expecting the attack. Vanessa had hearted herself out right away; she was a little kid then. Victoria and Veronica had followed, Victoria taking Melinda with her. They were all too young to fight. Sammie and Andie, along with both HJ and their father, had followed.

Leaving Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Wyatt, and Chris to fight against all of the demons.

Chris could remember it with such clarity it honestly scared him. His mother had been throw from the stairs… she hadn't been killed by an energy ball or anything like that.

Her neck had been snapped as she hit the ground.

And the snap was still vivid in Chris's mind, and he knew that it would haunt him until his dying day.

AAt first, Chris wasn't sure about what was going to happen after the death of his mother. It wasn't as though Leo could take them in. Chris refused to call Leo 'Dad'. He was never there for them; only Wyatt, and only rare times after Piper's death. Piper had been pregnant with Melinda when Leo had left.

n stranger would have thought that Wyatt was his only child. Chris and Melinda weren't his children; they were just partly his, partly Piper's. They were Piper's son and daughter, not Leo's son and daughter. Leo had one son: Wyatt. Piper had two sons and a daughter: Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda.

Chris would never consider him a father. Not in this world.

He sighed as he started to remember things again. First, though, if one of the sisters came, he couldn't be seen like this. Pulling himself up and opening his eyes, Chris walked towards the couch, looking as though he was in a trance.

Not bothering to take off his clothes or anything, Chris laid down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Now, however, he let himself be taken away by memories. He closed his eyes again, seeing only blackness.

Chris knew now that everything that he and his family had done in that future was in vain. All of the innocents they saved… most of them had ended up dead in Wyatt's new rule. All of their friends had ended up dead or serving Wyatt.

Cody Sinclair, a half-manticore who had practically grown up as one of the Halliwell boys, had joined Wyatt's cause and had left them. Melinda had fallen in love with him when they were kids. He had broken her heart, but not before she had gotten pregnant because of him.

When she had finally had the baby, only a few months before she was killed, tragedy had stolen all of her hope. The baby, a beautiful little boy with dark brown hair, was stillborn. A sobbing Melinda had whispered to Chris that the baby's name was Derrick Christopher Halliwell, after his one uncle and his deceased paternal grandfather.

Everything that had gone on there had been in vain.

_I believe in you, Chris._

Those had been his cousin's last words to him. He could remember the last time that he had seen Vanessa. She was the baby Halliwell, the one that would end up being the leader of the Resistance by the time that she was eighteen.

She had been Phoebe and Coop's little girl, their pride and joy. She was their angel. Their baby girl.

Their baby girl had had her childhood taken away from her. Her mother. Her father. Her aunts and uncles. Her cousins. Everyone. She was another soldier now - fighting in a war that was impossible to win. And eventually, she would have become a casualty of war, just like her family.

Only the Halliwells had known about Chris's trip to the past. Along with Bianca, of course. Now, everybody probably knew. Everybody was putting their trust in Chris. And Chris wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. It was a hell of a lot of pressure.

He could remember the last time he had seen Vanessa. She had hugged him tightly and had told him, "I believe in you, Chris."

It was truly amazing how much those words could impact him. They had stayed with him this entire time. He heard them every time that he looked at his future aunt. Vanessa and Phoebe were so alike. Chris could only imagine what would have happened, had Vanessa had a chance to get to know her mother.

Vanessa was a spell writer, like her mom. Chris had a feeling that, if she had had time, Vanessa would have become a writer or something that had to do with the things that Phoebe loved to do. If the world hadn't gone to hell, that is. She was creative, just like her mother.

Chris could remember when Phoebe had gotten her empathy power. She had had that power in the future, but it had come about a year before the birth of Victoria, according to stories he had heard. He had been forced to get the potion in order to protect his identity.

All Chris was doing right now was letting himself think about the last couple of months - the couple of months that had been spent in the past, and the last few days that he had been in his future. His time. His world. The place where he belonged.

He didn't miss it. It was hell - there were no other ways to describe it. The apocalypse had not occurred there. But the world had fallen into hell with no way to get out.

He opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling. It was blank. Comforting. No patterns to it, just whiteness. He didn't know why, but he liked it. A lot more than anything else. There were no complications in it, no lies in it… just the plain color of white, and the stark truth of it.

Truth. Honesty. Now those were two things that Chris Halliwell wasn't. He had told so many lies to his family over the past few months. In his future, you did what you had to survive. Even if it meant lying. Even if it meant killing, sometimes.

That's why Chris had killed those Valkyries. He would never forgive himself for it. He didn't want to kill them. But he had to. For the Greater Good. To be able to save Wyatt.

He knew that those words were just said in his mind so that he was able to sleep at night. More than once had Chris woken up in the middle of the darkness of night, his face covered in sweat and his breathing hard. He had those nights more and more as time went on.

He would never forgive himself.

Never.

He had been telling so many secrets and lies to his parents… his aunts. He was able to lie, unlike Phoebe. You had to know how to lie in his world. Or else, you would most likely end up dead.

It was a fight to survive every day there. You lived for yourself.

Or, you usually ended up dead.

Going to the past hadn't exactly been an easy plan to complete. They had to find the spell. They had to find out who had enough power to cast it and go back. They had to choose who would cover that person's escape. A distraction had to be planned and set up.

A million different things had to be done in order to do one thing.

Chris had been chosen to go. He was the second oldest living Halliwell - and among the most powerful. He was born to a Whitelighter and a witch. A Charmed One, nonetheless. Sure, Melinda was part Whitelighter, too, but she had not gotten any Whitelighter powers. They were all powerful, but Chris was the strongest when it came to their Wiccan ways.

So, Bianca had immediately been chosen to cover Chris's escape. Chris had hated that idea from the beginning. The thought of putting Bianca or anyone else in danger was disgusting to him… and it scared him. He didn't want to see anyone hurt. No one. Absolutely no one.

But, Bianca had been hurt. And killed. All because of him.

The look of fear and pain that he had seen in Bianca's eyes flashed through Chris's mind. He felt his stomach flip in fear as he remembered it. It had pained him more than anything, and had caused him to tap into a reservoir of untapped power that he had never discovered.

His own power.

He had never known that he had that much power. But… he had never know much about himself in that world. He didn't know that much about himself.

It was like his world wasn't real… that it wasn't supposed to exist or anything like that. Like it was not supposed to be.

Like it was all a mistake.

He knew that his life in his world was just like a dance. With evil as his partner. The battle of good vs. evil was like a dance. It was odd to describe it like that, but it was like a dance. It was true.

Good and evil were the two partners. Only they knew the choreography. They knew what they had to do. They fought each other, helped each other as they danced. It was odd, kind of.

Yet, Good was the slightly more skilled dancer. Good always had the upper hand against evil. In both dance and in real life, where the dance never ended… it kept going on and on, and new dancers took over as soon as the old ones were too tired.

It was like that for witches, too. Wyatt, Chris, Melinda, Victoria, Veronica, Vanessa, HJ, Sammie, and Andie should have taken over for their mothers as soon as they were old enough. But they couldn't - the evil turned out to be Wyatt. Their own flesh and blood.

There was nothing harder than fighting your own flesh and blood. Someone you laughed with, cried with, loved, took care of, and stood by.

That was Chris's opinion, anyway. And he knew that the rest of his living family shared the same view. Vanessa did, and she was only a teenager. She was young, but she had been forced to grow up so much more faster than she should have had to.

Vanessa was a lot like her family. She had gotten their grandmother's - Patty - wisdom, and ability to mediate between feuding family members. She had kept Chris and Andie from killing each other on more than once occasion. But, she was a lot like her aunt Piper, too. Sarcastic, brave, and family-oriented.

She loved the family.

She was the one person out of everyone who thought that there was one chance that Wyatt could be saved.

Everyone knew it was because of her childlike, naïve nature. A nature that had been disappearing as Chris had left to go to the past.

One he knew that would be gone as soon as Chris got back. If he ever got back, anyway.

Chris had learned long ago not to look the enemy in the eye as you killed them. When he had killed a Valkyrie, however, he had looked her in the eye. The look of betrayal, rage, and fear was haunting Chris to this very moment. He knew it would haunt him forever.

Wyatt had had witches fighting for him. Demons. Tons of beings. And, at first, as he killed them to defend himself and others, he had looked them in the eyes. Something he regretted soon after, as he tried to sleep.

Something he had stopped doing soon after he had begun his fight.

He had been looking into Melinda's eyes as she had died. He had watched the light fade out of her eyes… go away completely. She had died in his arms.

His mind went back, to the battle where Melinda, his baby sister, the most sarcastic girl out of the Halliwell girls had been killed. In that battle, Victoria and Melinda had been the only Halliwells present. Cody had also been in the battle, and had pulled Melinda aside, hiding her behind a dumpster. He had been furious; Wyatt had just told him about his stillborn son.

A moment later, a demon trying to take over Cody's position had destroyed the dumpster with an energy ball.

Both Cody and Melinda had been killed instantly. Their bodies had flown to the side, towards the edge of the battle. Both were dead before they had hit the ground. A distracted Victoria had been stabbed in the back a moment later, and had been dead within an hour from blood loss… taking with her any chance of bringing back the Power of Three, which would not be possible until Vanessa would have turned eighteen.

A tear escaped Chris's eyes. His baby sister had died a violent death that he hadn't deserved.

He had lost his cousin and his sister that day.

And the side of good had lost two crucial players.

Two of their last hopes.

A chill went across his skin. He was being watched. He opened his eyes, and then looked towards the door of the office. A beautiful, light-haired woman stood there. She hesitated as she looked at Chris, and then looked around before looking back at him. Chris stood up, looking at her.

"You alright, Chris?" asked Paige Matthews, the past version of Chris's future aunt. The red head raised an eyebrow in concern at him.

"Yeah… why are you here? Is there a demon or something?" Chris knew that his voice sounded numb. His throat was still numb, every single sense was numb.

"No… I just wanted to check on you."

Chris wasn't fooled. "You want to know what happened to Bianca."

Paige hesitated, and then nodded at the Whitelighter. "What do you mean, she won't be a threat to anyone anymore? Is she alright? What happened, Chris? When you came back, you looked like you were beat up or something…"

_Because, technically, I was beaten up. _Chris let that thought run through his head, but he bit back it as his verbal response. No doubt it would confuse Paige, and bring on unwelcome questions.

"Bianca's dead."

Paige's dark eyes widened as Chris gave her an honest, blunt answer. She hadn't been expecting it. She had been expecting some cryptic 'future consequences' crap. But, no - the neurotic Whitelighter from the future had given her some real answers for once.

"Chris… I'm really sorry. I am." Paige didn't know how to tell someone sorry when they had lost their fiancée, the love of their life… but she could try.

"Thanks," Chris replied quietly, looking straight into her dark eyes. "Is that all?"

Paige hesitated, and then nodded. She looked at him a full minute, staring him in the face. There was something more to this, she knew. She didn't want to ask, however. Paige knew there was something behind all of this… but she wasn't going to ask.

"That's it," Paige confirmed, looking the Whitelighter up and down. "Thanks. I'm sorry, Chris."

With that, she orbed away. Chris sighed, and then sat back down on the couch, putting his face in his hands.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Bianca was supposed to have gone and be able to make it back to HJ, Andie, Veronica, and Vanessa. There, she would be safe. There, the cousins would be able to protect her. They would be able to protect each other.

No. She had gotten captured.

Wyatt had broken her. Brought her back to the Phoenix - back to her life as an assassin. Aaron and Bianca had both broken away. Aaron had been killed because of what he had done in the Phoenix, because he had fallen in love with Sammie.

Bianca had been brought back and had been killed without a second thought.

In Chris's mind, that wasn't fair. Bianca deserved so much more. She deserved the world. Chris would have given it to her… if it wasn't hell. He loved her with all of his heart. They may not have been soul mates, but they loved each other, had each other's backs.

He shook his head in his hands again, and let tears come in.

Bianca's fearful, painful eyes came back to his mind's eye.

He was getting tired of lying. He didn't like it anymore. Chris had never liked lying - it felt like poison in his mouth, as his Aunt Phoebe had taught him, his siblings, and cousins as a child. That lesson was on the tip of his tongue whenever he looked at Phoebe.

He could remember anything about either of his aunts, or his mother, when he looked at them.

He could remember how Piper would tickle them to make them feel better, or play the popcorn machine when they were little. Chris could remember her amazing cooking… her chocolate chip cookies had been the best ever made, there was no doubt about it.

He could remember how Phoebe would always know exactly what to say to make someone feel better. How much she loved her family. How driven she was when it came to her career. How much she loved her husband - Chris's uncle Coop, who had taken Chris to some amazing baseball games as a child.

He could remember how Paige always knew how to lighten up a situation. How she always knew how to help when it came to a magical problem. She was the 'cool' aunt. Sammie, Andie, and Henry had had an easy childhood, with her as their mother. Even though their childhood had been destroyed with her death.

He could remember all of them, and he missed all three of them.

Piper, Phoebe and Paige of this time weren't his aunts. They would become them someday, sure, but they were different people. They would change so much in the coming years… in ways that Chris knew would change them for both good and bad.

Mostly for good, though.

Chris knew he wasn't going to last much longer in this world. He wasn't meant to be there. He wasn't immortal.

Sooner or later, something was going to kill him here.

Dangers were all around him, and he put himself in the crossfire of demons more than once a day. He was trying to save Wyatt, but he was putting himself at risk at the same time. It was something that had to be done, however.

Gith had nearly killed him a couple of months ago. He had barely survived, and that had been thanks to Leo. Which basically infuriated Chris, since there was nothing more he hated than owing the Whitelighter anything. Or, Elder, as he now was.

Which wasn't going to do that well when he had to figure out a way to get Piper and Leo to conceive him…

But, it was all a dance. Chris had the upper hand now - he was the more experience danger out of the two. Him being the representative dancer of good, and every other demon in the Underworld being the dancer of evil.

Chris had things that they didn't - Halliwell magic, future knowledge, a spell-casting ability, orbing, trust with the Charmed Ones and their power… and those things gave Chris an upper hand.

But, honestly, he felt like he was fighting alone most nights. And he knew that he was. Because he was fighting to save his future. The future he was from.

Because, if he had his way, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige would not have that future. They would have futures where they were happy, with children, careers, and a balance of demons and magic on the side. They would never retire - just slow down as soon as their kids were able to take over.

At times, though, he did look into the eyes of people that he had to kill. Demons, definitely. Darklighters, duh. Warlocks… he wasn't even going to answer that one.

The hatred and annoyance that a member of the side of good - a mere witch - could kill a demon burned in every single one of them. And Chris had to laugh. He had vanquished more demons in his life than most people would have in any lifetime. And he had done it to survive.

It was a simple way of life where he came from. Kill, or be killed.

There was no third option for die-hard pacifists.

If there was one thing that someone had told him a long time ago, it was that he could never give up - that he had to fight until the very end. He had to hold on. Just hold on.

Chris shook his head, and nearly laughed out loud. He raised his head from his hands, and then reached into the pocket of his jeans. He pulled out the ring, and then studied the ring, looking it over. It was a beautiful ring - it had been his aunt Paige's engagement ring. Andie had given it to him, and had told him to ask Bianca to marry him.

He had to have some happiness in hell, she told him.

He turned it over in his hands, and then leaned over, placing the ring on the desk. He couldn't look at it anymore. He couldn't think of Bianca - it hurt too much.

And then, it hit him.

If he could find the demon who turned Wyatt, Bianca would be alive. Melinda would be alive. Victoria, Sammie, Paige, Piper, Phoebe, Uncle Henry, Uncle Coop… everyone would be alive. He knew it from the beginning, but now he had confirmation.

But he had to find that demon, first.

And that would be no easy task. He had been through the Book of Shadows many times, trying to find the demon. But he couldn't - they were high-level, most likely. He had to find them before they were able to vanquish the demon, thereby saving the future.

But, it was a way that the future could be saved - a way that Chris was going to take.

For Melinda. For Victoria. For Sammie.

For Bianca.

Chris shook his head, and then raised it. Standing up, he walked over towards a cabinet, sitting in the far end of the room. Opening the top most drawer, he pulled out several things. An athame. Potion vials filled with liquid. A small notebook.

His demon hunting supplies.

Shaking his head, Chris looked at them all, and then pushed several vials of green liquid into his front jeans pocket. And then a blue liquid vial into his shirt pocket. He put the athame in a slit in his pocket. And then grabbed the notebook tightly.

With that, Chris orbed away, heading towards the Underworld, leaving the engagement ring on the desk of the back office.

He had a dance to do. It was Chris's turn to dance that night - dance as the partner of good.

Dance so that he could win his battle.

He was going to hold on, alright.

Until the end.

Whether it would be evil's end.

Or his own.


End file.
